The day before Pesom had waited all afternoon and evening for Mindik to explain where he’d sent Botan, but he had stayed quiet with a worried expression on his face, and she hadn’t questioned him. She’d felt too out of sorts to ask anybody anything.

  It’s this mountain—but her normal excuse hadn’t worked and she’d known why. She had snapped at Botan, humiliating the shy young man. Then he had been sent away, but where? And why was Mindik so worried?

  Going to bed early hadn’t helped. She had flung herself about until the blankets twisted beneath her, and she’d had to sit up and straighten them out. Morning had finally come with the welcome distraction of work, although she’d caught herself pausing over and over again to stare across the mountain at Mindik’s group.

  Fortunately Mindik had told everyone to return to base camp mid-morning. As the last stragglers arrived, she had walked up to Mindik’s high rock, determined to find out where he had sent Botan so she could relax.

  She’d found out easily enough; however, it had not relaxed her.

  “Let me get this straight, Mindik. You think something in the woods around Slopes might hurt people, and so you sent Botan into those woods,” paraphrased the angry young woman in front of him.

  “He’s only passing through,” the expedition leader protested weakly.

  Pesom scowled at him. “I can’t believe it. I really can’t believe it! Are exploring and researching the only things that matter to you?”

  Mindik stopped smiling and the firmness came back into his voice.

  “This group is my responsibility, Pesom. I remember seeing stories in the archives about creatures called Stone Walkers, but I can’t remember any of the details. I need accurate information.”

  “And you sent Botan into possible danger to get the information,” she said unrelentingly.

  “Who do you think should have gone—one of our younger more inexperienced explorers?” he asked, trying to stay quiet so no one else would hear. “Do you think I should have gone myself and taken the only person with any knowledge of possible danger away from the group? Maybe I should have told everyone and caused a general panic?”

  Pesom opened her mouth quickly. However, to Mindik’s immense gratification, she closed it again, obviously unable to come up with an easy answer.

  He told her in a calmer voice, “More than likely, there’s no danger. You know me. I have to worry over every detail before I’m happy.”

  She seemed slightly mollified, and he assured her, “I would never risk Botan’s life. Next to you, he’s my most valuable explorer.”

  The new scowl made Mindik want to hide behind a rock. Now what had he said? Forget it—he had looked forward to this day, and he refused to let Pesom spoil it.

  He jumped to his feet and called loudly to the explorers chatting with each other on the rocks beneath him.

  “We’ve waited long enough to explore the interlocking cave system. Fresh air from outside should have reached the more remote caves by now. It’s time to go back in. My group will explore first while the rest of you finish lunch. After that Pesom’s group can go, and then Botan’s.”

  Hurrahs arose from every explorer on the expedition team except for the one sitting behind him. Mindik ignored her.

  “Who’s on meal duty?” he asked, though the glum expressions on four people from Botan’s group made the question unnecessary. They raised limp hands, and he smiled at them.

  “Don’t worry, we won’t leave you out. As soon as you can, start preparing for supper. Keep it simple, and you should be able to enter the caves with your group. I’ll mark the cutoff point with this red cloth. Nobody goes any further. Understand?”

  They answered with another hurrah, and Mindik waved his group on rather unnecessarily since they were already scrambling over the rocks like squirrels racing over the branches of trees. When they reached the entrance to the first cave, they made a quick fire to light their lanterns and then jumped up and down in place, waiting for Mindik.

  He didn’t motion Doser to go first this time.

  It’s my responsibility, he decided happily as he lit his lantern and walked into the cave.

  He could hear the crowding behind him, but nobody pushed too badly. At least he didn’t think they did, but Mindik wasn’t interested in evaluating his group’s social behavior right then. His eyes were riveted on the dark opening to the second cave. Pushing eagerly through, he smiled with satisfaction when a breeze from outside brushed past the back of his neck.

  The massive stalactites and stalagmites demanded attention, but he didn’t give them any, nor did anyone else in the group. The explorers in the very back stepped on the heels of the people in front of them; those people stepped on the heels of the people in front of them, and the pattern continued all the way up to Mindik, who didn’t notice whether anyone was stepping on his heels or not, because he had reached the third cave.

  Once more he smiled with satisfaction.

  “Can you tell how much better the air is?” he asked and walked through the widened space between the walls without waiting for an answer, his group pushing and squirming after him.

  Finally they could explore the nooks and crannies they had dreamed about for days. The young man who had gotten sick to his stomach in an enclosed alcove, charged into it again. When he emerged, he waved triumphantly, and Mindik made a victory flourish with one hand over his head.

  Fresh air had definitely made a difference.

  Mindik started methodically examining a crevice in the right side of the cave. He didn’t have to study it long though. It didn’t lead into anything but a low cavity in the rock.

  It was the fourth cave that really interested him, but he didn’t want to explore it yet. He wanted to know this cave first. A half hour later, he straightened up. They would need to move on if the other groups were going to come today too.

  “I’m going through,” he called, and everyone jumped to follow him.

  Mindik was as eager as they were, but he walked slowly because the downward slant of the cave floor got much more pronounced as he neared the fourth cave. Each step had to be taken with care. The opening in the wall he was approaching was a large one, more than five feet wide at the bottom, and even though it narrowed as it rose, there was still plenty of—

  He stopped walking.

  The mass of lanterns behind him cast a blaze of light forward, illuminating clearly the next few feet. Mindik had spotted something in the bright light, something that stopped him so abruptly the explorers once more stepped on each other’s heels.

  Complaints jarred the underground stillness, but their leader wasn’t listening. He stared hard at the wall on one side of the opening. Then he stared at the other side. Long scratches had been cut deep into the rock on either side.

  “It’s like the first crevice before we widened it. Remember? It had scratches on it too,” Doser said from behind him.

  “Let’s go in,” muttered someone, and several people agreed loudly.

  The group wanted to explore the fourth cave. They didn’t want to examine scratches in the rock. Obviously their leader was obsessively interested in such markings, but the group felt certain he could examine them some other time.

  Mindik leaned closer to one of the walls and held his torch up to it.

  Then he responded to Doser in a voice that sounded odd even underground, where the echoes warped normal conversation, “No. This is not like the first crevice.”

  He straightened up and stared into the darkness of the cavern in front of them.

  “These are new scratches.”

  No one understood why Mindik hustled them out of the caves. They didn’t understand but neither did they complain. Without hesitation they spun around and propelled themselves forward in a rushing compliant clump. Not one of them minded small closed-in places. Cave exploration had a tendency to weed out people with claustrophobia before a trip began. The young men and women who raced to get out of the cave system they had been so eager to enter were not afraid of caves, nor were they afraid of the dark.

  They were afraid of whatever had frightened their leader.

  When Mindik had turned his head toward them, his neck had moved stiffly. His eyes had glittered in the torchlight.

  “Get out of here. Now,” he’d ordered in the same odd-sounding voice.

  Bursting into the bright sunlight, the explorers rushed over to the base camp. They watched as Mindik picked up the meal bell and swung it hard. The clamor brought Pesom and Botan’s groups at a run, but none of the men and women in those two groups had stood before a dark underground opening and an unnerved leader.

  “He rang the bell because he saw scratches on a wall?” a young woman asked incredulously.

  Mindik’s group didn’t answer. They continued to watch their leader through eyes that had widened in the caves and still not shrunk back to normal. Mindik stood on a rock and stared toward the trees, hands clenched to hide a tremble in his fingers. Pesom climbed up to him.

  “What happened in there?” she asked uneasily.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Is everyone here?” he asked instead, glancing at the big group of people below him.

  “Everyone except for Flox. She went to check the fish trap,” someone from the supper team answered.

  Mindik’s face paled.

  “She went into the woods,” he gasped.

  The young man answered hesitantly, “Yes, to the stream. What’s wrong?”

  Mindik pulled himself together and explained tersely, “I think a Stone Walker came out of the caves we opened up. What else could scratch so deeply into the rock? You know how hard this mountain is.”

  The explorers remained uncomfortably silent. Pesom opened and closed her mouth, but nothing came out of it.

  Finally someone asked the obvious question.

  “What’s a Stone Walker?”

  “I don’t know,” Mindik answered in a loud enough voice for everyone to hear. The time for staying quiet so his group wouldn’t panic had ended. If they wanted to panic, they could—and he was fully prepared to join them.

  “Stone Walkers were said to live in this area centuries ago. They were made out of stone, but I don’t remember the archival report on them clearly enough to give you facts. I didn’t take the time to do anything but skim what I thought was a legend.”

  “How dangerous are they?” whispered Pesom.

  “I don’t know,” Mindik repeated, “and I realize that’s a weak answer. Yesterday I sent Botan to Parsleyville to redirect Chera’s research. I told him to read the report on Stone Walkers and come back today with Botan. They should have arrived by now. It’s almost noon and I told them to leave early in the morning.”

  His voice trailed off and his face convulsed. The group didn’t move. No one spoke.

  When Mindik spoke again, it was through a tight throat. “I should have restricted us to base camp as soon as I felt suspicious. I’ve put Botan and Chera into danger, and now Flox.”

  Pesom’s face had convulsed along with Mindik’s, but her features straightened out almost immediately. She was an experienced explorer. She knew what needed to be done. Squaring her shoulders, she put her feelings aside and did it.

  “You did right to send for the information, Mindik. We need to make informed decisions. Botan knows the woods between here and Parsleyville as well as any of us except for Chera, who’s traveled back and forth so many times he could draw a map. If anybody could make it past Stone Walkers, those two could. As far as Flox goes, you didn’t find the new scratches until this afternoon. Restricting us to base camp before now wouldn’t have made sense.”

  The group of explorers shifted positions and noticeably relaxed, trust in their leader bolstered by her words. Mindik’s unhappy gaze flew to her face, and she looked at him kindly.

  “Pesom, you’re beautiful,” he stated fervently, and others in the group agreed.

  “That’s ridiculous,” she responded, staring over the heads of the group to avoid making eye contact with anyone.

  Unaccountably her face lit up.

  “I’ve never been beautiful, but I do know a few things none of the rest of you do. For instance I know three people have come out of the woods and started up—” but she didn’t get any further.

  A welcoming shout ricocheted down the mountain slope, making Chera, Botan, and Flox stare upwards as they climbed, puzzled expressions on their faces.

  R

  Early that same morning, when the darkness of night was still dimming the porch and yard, Chera slipped out of his cottage and closed the door. He had already strapped a backpack around his shoulders but was carrying his shoes in either hand. Avoiding the place on the porch that squeaked, he began to sit on the top step.

  “Chera,” came a voice from behind him.

  Jerking forward in surprise, the young man rolled down the steps to the ground, both shoes rolling along beside him. Muffled laughter was the only sympathy he got.

  “Mother, why are you awake at this hour?” he whispered sternly.

  “I’m going to fix breakfast for you,” Lynn told her youngest son calmly through the kitchen window, but Chera could hear laughter in her voice.

  He sniffed to suppress a chuckle. His pride didn’t want to chuckle. It had its nose in the air because of its clumsy fall down the steps. On the other hand, when he viewed the fall through his mother’s eyes—Chera shrugged his shoulders and grinned, though he didn’t let Lynn see him do it. There was no sense encouraging certain types of behavior.

  He announced briskly, “I don’t have time for breakfast. Mindik wanted us to leave early, and I was supposed to meet Botan five minutes ago at the edge of town.”

  In an instant, Lynn became all mother. “You can’t walk for hours without anything to eat,” she scolded.

  “I’ve got dried meat and two apples,” he assured her.

  “Wait right there,” she ordered in a threatening tone of voice and then disappeared from the window.

  Chera retrieved his shoes from the ground and climbed the porch steps. A whine slid under the kitchen door. He sat on the top step, ignoring it, but the whine got louder. Scratching noises began to punctuate it.

  One shoe on and one shoe off, he hastily got up again to open the door. Stupo bounded out, full of joy at this unexpected expedition. He dashed madly around Chera’s feet and gave a bark to indicate how much pleasure his company would bring.

  “You can’t go,” the young man informed the little dog ruthlessly.

  Stupo collapsed on the porch, a still life of canine woe.

  “You can’t go no matter how pathetic you make yourself look,” Chera told him as he sat again on the top step, determined to get his other shoe on before anything else stopped him.

  He had more success this time. By the time he stood, shoes double-knotted, his mother was coming out of the kitchen.

  “Here. I made enough for both you and Botan,” she said, thrusting a bag at him.

  A warmly fragrant smell rushed into his nose, and he swallowed hungrily. What was that smell? The nightlights swirled and danced in the Tarth sky, but they didn’t give much light at this time in the early morning.

  He had to poke his nose directly into the bag before he could figure its contents out, but Chera didn’t mind. His pride had forgotten about its humiliating fall down the steps, and the formerly elevated nose was now only interested in basic sniffing.

  “Ham biscuits,” he yelped joyously. “Mom, you’re wonderful! I thought we had finished the biscuits last night.”

  Lynn informed her son smugly, “We finished the ones I served. I hid some and put them near the coals overnight so they would keep warm for your breakfast.”

  Chera popped a whole ham biscuit into his mouth and then tried to kiss her goodbye. Crumbs blew everywhere.

  “Phew! Better go, ham breath,” she advised him.

  Another explosion of crumbs made her laugh, and she watched her boy’s tall form hurry off. Stupo jumped off the steps and rushed into the darkness after him. Lynn couldn’t see the little dog, but she could hear him rustling through grass that had grown at least six inches over the past week.

  She called softly, “Stupo, don’t leave me. I need you here.”

  The rustling noise paused. Then it started up again, but it had reversed directions. A green fuzzy body emerged from the darkness, sprang up the steps into her lap, and sat there. She could feel the small heart beating wildly with excitement.

  Stupo bent his head back once and glanced at her, as if to make sure she was indeed Lynn. When his heartbeat slowed down, they sat quietly together and watched the morning come.

  Chera and Botan finished the ham biscuits in less than a minute. Crushing the bag into a small ball, Chera threw it into some leaves. It would disintegrate. He certainly didn’t want to keep it in his pocket. It smelled so strongly of ham he’d get hungry again long before lunchtime.

  In the gradually brightening light, a clear note dropped out of the branches above them, springing with liquid-pure intensity from a tiny throat. Another bird called and another. Before long the woods rang with dozens of melodies. By the time the birdcalls quieted down, long rays of light were slanting through the leaves.

  “Did you see the sun rise?” Chera asked Botan.

  His friend scoffed cheerfully, “Under these trees? Not much chance! We’ll see it set though.”

  Chera grunted agreement. Mountain explorers had monotonous boring lives in his opinion; however, they did often live above trees, which meant they got to see sunrises and sunsets. Stalli villages on the other hand, were usually located in the more temperate valleys, where the dense forests covered up all but a few tantalizing patches of sky. It didn’t matter as much for sunrises, which were only nice golden glows. A Tarth sunset now was something worth seeing. Tonight, Chera promised himself.

  The light filtering through the leaves stopped slanting when the sun began to lift to an overhead position. Two streams and a snack stop later, it began to slant again, this time in the opposite direction.